Handmade emblems for the body.
Metalsmiths often refer to jewelry as adornment.
I love that. It captures the function of jewelry but also something more.
Humans have never treated body ornaments — earrings, necklaces, bracelets, cuffs, brooches, anklets, and so on — merely as decoration. They can be proclamations, personal affirmations, symbols of belonging (or not), even political statements. A person chooses a piece of jewelry because it means something to them, even if they can’t identify exactly why it resonates.
I approach my metalsmithing work with all of this in mind, creating modern, minimalist designs that are timeless and wearable. I bring every part of myself to my craft: my early experiences as a fiber and ceramics artist, my training in fine metals, my dedication to the revival of traditional domestic crafts, and my rootedness in the community of local makers.
When you put on my designs, I want all of this to come through and —more than anything else, for you to feel good — to feel like yourself and to feel like you’re a part of something.
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Because jewelry can be shared, repurposed, reworked, and passed down, it serves as a potent vehicle of cultural memory and of personal remembrance.
— Melanie Holcomb, from the introduction to Jewelry: The Body Transformed
Nice to meet you
I’m Pamela, a jewelry designer and maker and a fine metals educator. I work with sterling silver, brass, bronze, and 14-karat gold fill and use traditional methods to craft each of my designs by hand out of my home studio, which sits on the traditional land of the Cayuse, Cowlitz, and Nisqually People. With gratitude, I honor the land itself and its original inhabitants, past and present.
Building on my work as a fiber artist, I started taking fine metals courses in 2011, first at The Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle and then at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. I now teach and maintain the metal lab at Evergreen as the fine metals technician.
The process of fine metals work is so satisfying — designing a piece to complement the lines of the body, fashioning it out of wire and sheets of metal, applying the finishing touch with a fine polishing compound. I’m always thinking about form, weight, and movement.
I’m also drawn to metalsmithing because it’s sustainable by nature. When you work with metal you don’t throw away scraps, you reuse them to make new pieces or take them to a salvage operation so others can put them to use. Nothing goes to the landfill.
But more than anything, I love that a lasting piece of jewelry is both personal and communal: a pleasing thing to wear that, ultimately, connects us to other people.